SC/ST officers promoted on quota basis to be reverted

Updated Wednesday, 01 June 2011 18:06:30 - IST (UTC +5:30)

JAIPUR: Rajasthan High Court has debarred SC/ST officers promoted on quota basis from writing the annual confidential reports of their "subordinates" who are otherwise senior to them.
The High Court took the action in the light of Supreme Court's judgement against promotion on quota basis. All SC/ST officers are likely to be placed back on seniority list as they were before being promoted. All such officers in State Government Service are to be reverted. However State Government is reluctant to implement SC order for political considerations.
The Apex Court passed an order on December 7, 2010 upholding Rajasthan HC order striking down the state government's notifications to grant reservation in promotions and consequential seniority to SC/ST employees and held that benefit of reservation unlawful in promotions to state government SC/ST employees.
It was argued before the single bench of justice M N Bhandari that the February 5, 2010 HC order categorically held that no reservation was permissible in promotions in the state services since the Rajasthan government had failed to fulfill the conditions laid down by the Supreme Court in the M Nagraj Case judgment on the Constitutional provision of reservation in promotions in October 2006.
The HC had also struck down the state government's notifications of December 28, 2002 and April 25, 2008. The state government then filed a special leave petition against the HC order, but SC dismissed the government appeal on December 7, 2010.
The petitioners argued that the reserved category officials who had been promoted before December 7, 2010 in the PWD and other departments were now due to be reverted hence they should be stopped from writing Annual Personal Reports of the officials who are likely to become senior after implementation of SC order.

Green-glowing cats are new tool in AIDS research

Chicago — U.S. scientists have developed a strain of green-glowing cats with cells that resist infection from a virus that causes feline AIDS, a finding that may help prevent the disease in cats and advance AIDS research in people.

The study, published Sunday in the journal Nature Methods, involved inserting monkey genes that block the virus into feline eggs, or oocytes, before they are fertilized.
The scientists also inserted jellyfish genes that make the modified cells glow an eerie green color — making the altered genes easy to spot.
Tests on cells taken from the cats show they are resistant to feline immunodeficiency virus, or FIV, which causes AIDS in cats.
"This provides the unprecedented capability to study the effects of giving AIDS-protection genes into an AIDS-vulnerable animal," Dr. Eric Poeschla of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, who led the study, said in a telephone interview.
Poeschla said that besides people, cats and to some extent, chimpanzees, are the only mammals that develop a naturally occurring virus that causes AIDS.
"Cats suffer from this all over the world," he said.

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Just as the human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV, does in people, FIV works by wiping out infection-fighting T-cells.
FIV infects mostly feral cats, of which there are half billion in the world, Poeschla said. It is transmitted by biting, largely by males defending their territory, but companion cats are affected as well.
In both humans and cats, proteins called restriction factors that normally fight off viral infections are defenseless against HIV and FIV because the viruses evolved potent counter-weapons. But certain monkey versions of these restriction factors are capable of fighting the virus and the team used one such gene from the rhesus monkey.
For the team, which included collaborators in Japan, the trick was to get the monkey gene for the restriction factor — known as TRIMCyp — into cats to block cells from becoming infected with the virus.

Maternal preeclampsia is associated with an increased risk of retinopathy of prematurity;

Ozkan H, Cetinkaya M, Koksal N, Ozmen A, Yildiz M; Journal of Perinatal Medicine (Aug 2011)
To determine the effect of maternal preeclampsia on development and severity of retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) in preterm infants This prospective study consisted of two groups: the study group, which is composed of preterm infants (≤32 weeks) born to a mother with preeclampsia, and the comparison group, which is composed of preterm infants (≤32 gestational age) born to normotensive mothers. We used the International Classification of Retinopathy of Prematurity Revisited for classifying ROP. The first eye examination was performed at postnatal age of 4 weeks. Results: A total of 385 infants were included in the study. ROP was diagnosed in 109 infants (28%). The incidence of ROP in infants born to preeclamptic mothers (40.5%) was significantly higher compared with those born to normotensive mothers (22.4%) (P<0.05). The number of infants with stage 1, 2, and 3 ROP was significantly higher in infants born to preeclamptic mothers compared with the control group (P<0.05). In multiple logistic regression model, preeclampsia was found to predict ROP (odds ratio 1.78, 95% confidence interval 0.66-1.90). Conclusion: Maternal preeclampsia was found to be associated with increased ROP development risk in premature infants. ROP was also more severe in infants born to pre-eclamptic mothers. The role of maternal preeclampsia in the occurrence and severity of ROP remains to be elucidated.

Surgical repair of spontaneous perineal tears that occur during childbirth versus no intervention

Trauma to the perineum of varying degrees constitutes the most common form of obstetric injury. The perineum is the area between the vagina and rectum which can tear during childbirth. In clinical practice these tears are often sutured. However, small tears may also heal well without surgical interference. If pain is experienced, this can result in decreased mobility and discomfort with passing urine or faeces and may negatively impact on the woman's ability to breast feed and care for her new baby. Our review included two randomised controlled trials (involving 154 women) comparing surgical repair of first-degree (involving only the perineal or vaginal skin) or second-degree tears (also involving muscle) with leaving the wound to heal spontaneously. These trials showed no clear differences in clinical outcomes between the groups. The studies did not find any differences in pain immediately and up to eight weeks postpartum. One of the trials reported no difference in wounds complications, but the other showed differences in wound closure and poor wound approximation in the non-sutured group. There was no information about the effect on long-term outcomes such as sexual discomfort or incontinence. More research is needed to provide a strong evidence-based recommendation for clinical practice.

The Cochrane CollaborationCochrane Reviews